Chris Bourque has now become the seventh player in Hershey Bears history to score 500 points as a Hershey Bear, joining Mike Nykoluk, Tim Tookey, Arnie Kullman, Gil Gilbert, Willie Marshall, and Dunc Fisher as the only players to accomplish the feat. In honor of this major accomplishment, we take a look back at some of Bourque’s earliest points as a Bear in GIF form.
Last week, Riliegh McHugh and I invited a few of the Hershey Bears to try some soccer challenges with us at In the Net in Palmyra. Six players accepted and we split them up into two teams. Team Riliegh: Garrett…
On Monday morning, American Hockey League President and CEO David Andrews announced he had selected Bears forward Chris Bourque to represent the Eastern Conference as their captain in the 2017 AHL All-Star Classic.
The selection marks Bourque’s fifth all-star game appearance and his fourth with Hershey. The 30-year-old currently leads all active AHL players with 604 points in 610 games and is two points away from 500 as a Hershey Bear. Last season, Bourque was named AHL MVP after winning the AHL scoring title for the second time in his career.
Any Hershey Bears fan would be able to recognize their favorite player if they encountered them off the ice, right? There is no other way to picture the athletes than as hockey players. As for people who have never attended a Bears game? They wouldn’t have any idea that the guy standing in line behind them is a professional ice hockey player.
I asked high school students who don’t know anything about the Bears what they believe their occupations are. The students were given head shots of eleven players with the jerseys cropped out. They did not know anything about the project being conducted. These are their answers:
Welcome to a new series on Chocolate Hockey called "Chocolate Hockey Plays"! We will be playing some of the Bears' favorite, classic video games for your viewing pleasure throughout the season. Last week I played Chris Bourque in NHL 94.…
I wrote an opinion article on June 30, 2015, entitled “Is It Time For Chris Bourque to Return to Hershey?” Bears fans were still mourning a second round playoff exit at the hands of Bourque and his team, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Bourque was less than 24 hours from becoming a free agent and for the first time in three seasons, there was a real possibility of Bourque returning to Chocolate Town.
Wouldn’t you know it, I woke up late on the second day of free agency and was worried I missed something. So I unlocked my phone and opened Twitter right away. One of the first tweets I saw was from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton blogger Jason Iacona (awesome guy, by the way. Go check out his stuff if you’ve never read his site before,) and it read “I don’t ******************* believe it.” What was so shocking to the blogger of a rival team? The return of Chris Bourque to the most storied franchise in AHL history.
Looking back on it, the signing may go down as one of the biggest in Bears history if you take into account what would happen in the 350 days since the forward put pen to paper.
Toronto, Canada – Chris Bourque poses with his record setting puck post game Wednesday night (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey)
On Wednesday night, Hershey beat the Toronto Marlies 8-2 to take a 3-0 series lead against the Marlies in the Easter Conference Finals. In the same game, Chris Bourque scored a goal and assisted on one of Jakub Vrana’s to become the Bears all-time playoff points leader at 74 points, passing Mike Nykoluk for first place.
For the first time since 2010, the Hershey Bears are back in the Eastern Conference Finals where they will face one of the best teams to come through the AHL since the 2010 Hershey Bears team, the Toronto Marlies. This season’s Marlies team finished with 114 points and a 54-16-5-1 record. The teams only faced each other twice this season, each winning in the other team’s building.
With both teams coming off of a series that went the distance, we could be in for another long match-up between these two division winners.
Travis Boyd skates to accept his award Sunday night
Sunday night the Hershey Bears honored this season’s team with the annual award ceremony. Eight awards were handed out to players this year.
Chris Bourque took home Bears team MVP, Riley Barber was named Rookie of the Year, Travis Boyd won the Kenny Smith Memorial Award for most player of the game nominations, Madison Bowey took home two awards: John Travers / Steve Summers award for highest plus/minus and Defenseman of the Year, and Nathan Walker took home eight awards: Man of the Year, Unsung Hero, and Most Improved Player.
Chris Bourque is the new American Hockey League most valuable player, and we’ve decided to honor him the same way we welcomed him back to Chocolate Town: with a video.
